Russia Political Terms

Bolshevik : a member of the Bolshevik Party lead by Lenin. It later became
the Communist Party. It believed that a small group of intellectuals should lead
the fight for the working class as they had the education to know what to do and
the poor did not.

Cheka : the name given to Lenin's secret police. It later became the KGB.

Collectivisation : the grouping together of farmland under
Stalin so that
farm production increased. Land given to the peasants' by Lenin, was taken back
by Stalin.

Communism : a belief developed by Karl Marx. It basically stated that
everybody is equal and no-one was better than anybody else. One person's luxury
lifestyle, lead to another person's poverty and exploitation.

Five Year Plans : the name given to
Stalin's industrial plans for the USSR so
that she could catch up quickly with the west.

Gulag : the name given to Stalin's prison camps. Many were built in the
harshest of conditions - frequently Siberia. The treatment given to these
prisoners was harsh and extreme.

Personality Cult : when a country's leader gets the people of that country to
all but worship hem/her. Cities, rivers, regions etc are named after him and
towns and cities are littered with huge posters of the leader. Stalin tried to
do this in Russia.

Purges : the name given to the time when Stalin shot or sent to the gulags
those who he felt opposed his rule. Millions were dealt with in this manner
after show trials.

Reds : the name given to anything associated with the Bolsheviks; such as the
Red Army during the Civil War.

Tsar : Russia's equivalent of king such as in Tsar Nicholas II.

War Communism : the name given to the policy introduced by
Lenin at the start
of the civil war whereby the Cheka confiscated whatever it needed with regards
to food, equipment etc. Those who opposed the Cheka were shot as "enemies
of the state".

Whites : the name given to the groups that opposed the Bolsheviks after the
overthrow of the Provisional Government and during the Civil War.